All lemon, at first — an earthy lemon, as the ad copy promises, but also a slightly medicinal lemon, with a muted China green aftertate. No mate taste at all, though you can smell it a bit in the vegetal earthiness. The initial scent put me off, but now that the lemon-wrestler has dissipated, the liquor is delicate and refreshing. It’s like the lemon scent has been pent-up and just explodes when hot water hit the leaves.

One confusion bit: the foil packet says to steep 4-6 minutes, while the little tag on the end of the string says steep 2-3 minutes. I steeped mine for 5 and am quite happy, but the continuity error in the packaging irks me.